Cowdery fears over cutting tax credits for low-earners

24 September 2009 0:32 am

Speaking at a Demos fringe event at the LibDem conference on Sunday, Cowdery said: "I am very worried about sweeping changes to the system that leave people on £10,000 to £14,000 a year without that last little bit that they need to close the gap between the income and expenditure that they have."

Cowdery described low to middle-earners - defined as earning between £11,600 to £27,000 - as "squeezed, exposed and overlooked".

LibDem Shadow Treasury chief secretary Jeremy Browne said: "In some circumstances, people are paid tax credits legitimately with earnings of over £40,000 a year.

"I do not think if you are looking at areas where you can make economies that that is sustainable in the current environment and there are savings to be made by reducing the levels at which you can claim tax credit but you would not hurt the people on the lowest income scale."

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